I meant to finish writing this 10 months ago, I really did. I’ve just been putting off writing my notes into a post. OTL …At least I did better with this than my first Arcana Famiglia game post, which I’ve been writing on and off for about 2 years now. Well, enjoy. Maybe by now you’ve all forgotten how terrible the anime was and you can now enjoy this version better.

Plot Summary

This summary is basically copy/pasted from the part 1 review of this game. (Masaomi, Kaname, Tsubaki and Subaru’s routes).

Ema’s mother died shortly after giving birth to her and so she’s lived alone with her father, Rintarou, for all of her life. Rintarou’s occupation is an adventurer. …Lord knows what that entails, but apparently he’s famous for it. However, one day he gets together with a woman named Asahina Miwa and being a considerate daughter, she goes to live with Miwa’s 11 (though there are actually 13 altogether) sons/Ema’s soon to be step brothers in some high class apartment complex to give Miwa and her father some alone time. Romance ensues. Ema also has a… random talking pet squirrel (though only she can hear it talk) named Juli that gives her advice. However, this squirrel is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya, thus making him amazing.

As for Ema herself, she’s… kind of your average heroine I guess. Ema is kind, caring, and pretty mature (though she has her moments). Oh, she’s definitely naive and she gets carried away with excitement sometimes. She also places a huge importance on family (which is just as well since that’s totally the theme of this game) and she absolutely loves cooking and cleaning. I guess what kind of sets her apart is the fact that she’s a gamer and she watches anime.

…So I had a hell of a time trying to memorize which brother was which when the game first started throwing names around, so here’s a list with ages. Since the games takes place over the period of a year, the ages reflect how old the characters are at the beginning of the game.

Masaomi (age 31)– Oldest of the group and a pediatrician who doesn’t like the sight of blood.

Ukyo (age 28)– …The housewife of the brothers (he cooks and organizes everyone). A lawyer and the voice of reason.

Kaname (age 26) – A guy who likes hitting on girls, but is a monk of all things. He has a serious side to him though.

Hikaru (age 25)– The crossdresser of the family. Only, he does it for his job, which is writing novels. …I don’t know if that makes the crossdressing thing better or not.

Tsubaki (24)– Tsubaki is Azusa’s identical twin (he dyes his hair) and works as a seiyuu. He’s kind of a straightforward idiot and he totally has a fetish for imoutos.

Azusa (24)– Tsubaki’s identical twin and pretty much his complete opposite personality-wise. Meaning that he’s cool headed and pretty calm. Also a seiyuu.

Natsume (24)– Okay, I lied above. Azusa, Tsubaki and Natsume are actually triplets. Only, Natsume isn’t identical like Tsubaki and Azusa are (since he’s from a different egg cell), so he’s the odd one out. He doesn’t live in the same complex as everyone else and seems rough at first, but is a nice guy.

Louis (21)– Professional hairdresser and the only person Ema has ever met that understands Juli. His name is romanized as Louis, but I’ll be using his nickname Rui. He’s kind of a airhead, I guess?

Subaru (19)– The guy plays basketball in university and is SUPER awkward around Ema since he has 342092 brothers and zero experience with girls.

Iori (18)– A student who looks like a prince and is idolized by a lot of girls. …I’m pretty sure that he has issues, but this game doesn’t go into them. So for now, he’s a bit soft spoken, but a guy with seemingly no flaws.

Yusuke (16)– Yusuke was actually Ema’s classmate before he was her brother and he’s liked her since forever ago. A ~tsundere~ who acts tough on the outside.

Futo (14)– A rather popular idol who goes under a different surname for his job. Ema was a fan until she actually met him since he uh, has a pretty terrible personality.

Wataru (10)– The youngest of the brothers, a bit immature, but really close to Masaomi.

Other characters include Mahoko, Ema’s awesome wingman best friend, and Sasakura, a guy from their class/ yet another guy who’s in love with Ema.

WARNING: Massive text walls ahead.

Yusuke

Yusuke and Ema are intially classmates and the first thing he tells her when they find out they’re going to be related is to not call him by his first name at school (so no one finds out that they’re step-siblings). It sounds kind of harsh, but Yusuke is actually a tsundere who seems like a delinquent. He gets embarrassed SUPER easily and all of his siblings like teasing him because of this (and they also all like calling him an idiot, since he kind of is one). I kind of feel bad going after routes other than his, I mean the guy has been after Ema since forever ago. On his birthday if Ema gives him a present, he goes “…Is this a dream?!” Ahahaha …ha …ha. Poor guy. I really liked Yusuke’s route, though I think it kind of… derailed a bit at the end. It had two of my least favourite cliches in there and the last one felt like a cheap way to get Ema and Yusuke into a relationship. Oh well. The rest of it was adorable.

He’s bullied persuaded by his brothers into accompanying Ema on the train to school in the mornings (since they’ve been going alone because Yusuke wants their sibling relationship to be a secret… because he’s embarrassed D’aww). On the train, Yusuke does manage to protect Ema from the crowds, but since this is public transit and Japan, they end up standing reeeeeeally close to each other. Then in July, Ema makes Yusuke a bento since he always buys his lunches. Yusuke is embarrassed of course and doesn’t want it until Sasakura asks if he can have it. …To which, Yusuke screams, grabs Ema’s hand and then runs to the rooftop. In that order. Since they kind of ran away in the middle of a conversation, they end up eating together.

During the family trip, Ema cuts her foot on the beach and Yusuke comes over to see if she’s alright. Seeing blood and ignoring Ema saying that it’s a small cut, Yusuke starts acting like Ema will never walk again. He carries her in a panic saying that he’ll take her to Masaomi. They run into the twins, where Yusuke learns that Ema wasn’t just being tough and it really is just a small injury that’s already stopped bleeding. And then Tsubaki teases Yusuke about having Ema press into his back like that while carrying her must have felt nice, making Yusuke run off in embarrassment. Ema runs after him to thank him for caring though. Then during the cultural festival preparations, Ema and Yusuke get locked inside the school by accident after staying late. Yusuke offers his uniform jacket, but Ema doesn’t take it and they hold hands instead to keep warm. …Which probably doesn’t do much for warmth, but ignore that, it was cute. The teachers come shortly afterwards (since Ema texted Mahoko and she in turn, let the teachers know), but Ema somehow manages to catch a cold over the ordeal (lolwut) and stays home the next day. For the actual cultural festival, Ema’s in the cafe still, with Yusuke gaping over her costume. The two spend the day being really busy since Mahoko underestimated the effect of the bunny waitress costumes. Their class won for being the most popular though and despite being busy, Ema tells Yusuke that it was really fun because he was there. Yusuke feels the same of course~.

One day they send Ema to wake up Yusuke, and he uses her as a hug pillow instead. Yusuke thinks it’s Wataru, so he refuses to let go and tells her to let him sleep. And then Ema’s protests that it’s her make Yusuke think it’s a dream, in which case he’s definitely not letting. So Ema slaps him awake and he’s super surprised/embarrassed over the whole thing and leaves the room really quickly. …But before he runs away, Ema points out that he should probably wear some pants before he goes outside. Ahaha Yusuke just can’t seem to win. The wedding happens, Ema runs away, and then Yusuke finds her. Ema doesn’t think that he understand her issues since he has so many brothers, but Yusuke tells her that everyone already thinks of her as family. It’s the same as usual really, but Yusuke does say here that he’s the one who was most concerned about her.

Since Yusuke absolutely sucks at studying, Ema helps him out with homework at school (and motivates him with the waifu approach promising to cook his favourite dish if he finishes). And then after taking supplementary exams on Christmas Eve, Yusuke takes Ema out to repay her for helping him. Of course, being Christmas, there are couples absolutely everywhere, and Yusuke gets embarrassed. What else is new. New years, the family goes to the shrine and Ema gets Yusuke to talk about the charm he wears all the time. Yusuke’s birth was apparently difficult for Miwa, so his father (the guy who produced 13 children, not Ema’s dad) got her a charm and then she gave it to Yusuke to protect him. He still wears it now as if his father is still watching over for him and while he thinks it must sound silly for a high school student to be saying that, Ema thinks the whole thing is wonderful. They run into their classmates though and they’d misunderstand if they saw Ema and Yusuke together (since they’re still keeping the sibling thing a secret), so Yusuke takes Ema’s hand and runs. …And then they run into Tsubaki and Kaname, who are all “Yusuke, you’ve finally become a man!” xD

In Janurary, Yusuke is acting weird around Ema. Also, Sasakura confesses to Ema and when she rejects him, he asks if it’s true that she’s dating Yusuke. Rumours have been flying around for a while now, and Ema gives up (since she can’t come up with any halfassed explanations) and finally tells Saskura that her and Yusuke are step siblings. Yusuke has actually been avoiding Ema for her own sake due to these rumours (so she doesn’t get caught up in them) and Ema blames herself for that. Sasakura isn’t really giving up on Ema and their friendship isn’t damaged by the failed confession, but then Yusuke walks in the classroom. Seeing Ema upset, immediately blames Sasakura for it (when really, she was upset over possibly angering Yusuke). A fist fight ensues because they solve everything and Ema has to patch Yusuke up at home later. However, after this, Yusuke finally talks to Ema again and Mahoko lets people know that the two are step-siblings so the rumours stop. Valentines, Yusuke actually has to go back inside is room and take a couple deep breaths to calm himself down after Ema gives him chocolate since he’s so flustered. Then he goes “k thanks” and shuts the door in her face, leaving Ema going “???”. White Day though, he properly reciprocates and is definitely less awkward (and he even gives her a detailed report on what he thought of the chocolates ahaha).

…And then out of nowhere, Brothers Conflict pulls a love rival out of it’s ass and it makes things extremely annoying again. If there’s two cliches that annoy the hell out me in otome games, its characters avoiding each other for the other’s sake and bitchy love rivals. Ema gets bullied by a kouhai of Yusuke’s (since she likes him and hates Ema) who followed him to this school. Only, Yusuke is too freaking dumb to realize that Ema is troubled, and Ema is too nice to point out what a bitch this girl is being. Futo notices what’s going on though. He’s such a bro. Despite Ema telling him not to, he eventually lets Yusuke know that Ema is in emotional distress. So on the rooftop the next day, all parties involved meet and Yusuke says that someone has been harassing Ema lately. …But it’s not important who it is. The important thing is that he was totally oblivious and failed to protect Ema. And then he confesses that he fell in love with Ema at the high school opening ceremony when he first saw her and despite not being able to keep her from being sad this time, he wants to stay with her and do a better job from now on. Ema admits that she loves him too. So, they become boyfriend and girlfriend, only in a really awkward setting with the kouhai and Futo watching. Oh well, Futo was such a bro here.

After all of that’s sorted out and both of them have graduated, it skips to Yusuke finding out that he actually passed the entrance exam to go to the same university as Ema. Both of them are really happy and then out of nowhere, Yusuke goes “Be my waifu wife!”. Ema knows he’s serious though, and the two of them agree to be ~together forever~. Skip to both of them actually attending university and once again, Ema is helping a reluctant Yusuke with his studies (since he wants to ignore studying, but Ema is pretty adamant about having him get good grades). They’ve both been busy due to school and stuff (plus exams are coming up), so they haven’t had a proper date in a while. Yusuke does manage to get a kiss in, but they’ll have to wait for a continuation after exams are done.

Futo

Before I say anything, it’s probably best that you think anime Futo =/= game Futo. He’s still an idol with an attitude problem and there’s still some of the sexual harassment (but mostly, attitude). However, his relationship with Ema is way less forced in pretty much every sense of the word. Basically, Futo will say something to make Ema misunderstand and then laugh at her as she gets flustered (and then Ema will get mad, but then forgive him). …Maybe that’s not the greatest summary ever, but where you’d want to hit Futo in real life for being an obnoxious brat, his relationship with Ema in the game is actually pretty adorable. Anyways, he’s the second youngest and is at the age where he thinks that the rest of his brothers are a pain. …Or maybe not, but he doesn’t really interact with them a lot due to him being constantly busy with work or tired. Though where he doesn’t like hanging out with his family, he doesn’t mind Ema~. He arrives later in the game and Ema finds him sleeping on a couch in the living area.

His first real event is during the family vacation on the island. Futo actually joins them since he has a filming thing to do near the island, and Ema comes upon the location when she’s walking along the beach. She tries to stay hidden though since Futo would probably demand she pay for the opportunity to see him act, but she does note that he was pretty good looking in the yukata. She also notes that Futo takes his acting really seriously too. Later, Futo sends her a text saying that she was watching without permission. He says a bunch of other things too, like how she should cook him dinner because texting her is taking up what precious spare time he has (since he’s busy, unlike some people). This is an order, not a request. Ema… has to restrain her anger, but she does decide to cook for him, since seeing him acting was pretty amazing and she wants to thank him for it. In a later month, the two of them watch movies in Futo’s room, but Ema ends up watching Futo more than the movie itself, since he seems so engrossed with the lead actor. When Futo calls Ema out on it, he does admit that he’s really interested in acting. In fact, he wants a career in it, but it’s kind of hard to do so, since he’s an established idol and still has a lot to learn. Ema almost cries over this (for some reason), since she empathizes with Futo’s frustration, and Futo feels rather touched by her feelings. …Yusuke then comes and ruins the heartfelt moment by interrupting at the door, but Futo covers Ema’s mouth and says to pretend that they’re not there, since he wants to be alone with Ema. Actually, Ema doesn’t mind spending time with Futo either. I’m kind of glossing over the parts where Futo teases Ema, but they do happen in places in here.

The cultural festival, Futo isn’t there physically, but Rui drops by since he was styling Futo’s hair at a nearby location, and he sends Futo a picture of Ema as a bunny waitress. At first Futo asks if she’s not embarrassed to be wearing something like that (over text), but then he tells her to come to his room wearing it later, since he does find her cute. The next event is pretty short too, in that it’s Ema’s family crisis. Of course, it’s Futo that finds her, and actually admits that he hates to see Ema cry (ever since that one time), but can’t leave it at that and ends up making Ema angry since he calls her an idiot. Though that’s what he was going for, since having her angry is still better than depression. He doesn’t really think that who your family is matters much, but he does say that he’s there for Ema. There’s an event where Ema changes her hair style (Rui does it for her) and Futo teases her about it by talking about how beautiful she looks and if they can ignore the fact that they’re siblings. …Which is of course, something to get a reaction out of Ema and he admits that she’s fun to tease. Ema gets angry, but can’t stay mad for long, since she does enjoy hanging around Futo.

Christmas, Futo invites Ema to see a concert of his (which means that she’s special since the rest of the family is basically banned from seeing him live), and totally looks at her while singing. He also says that the lyrics for the new song he sings are about true feelings that can’t normally be said because his mood is permanently stuck on “brat” mode outside of work someone can’t be honest. Ema is wowed over Futo’s performance and when he asks her to come backstage afterwards, she tells him as much. He stays in costume for her and mentions that him looking at her and the lyrics are her presents. Ema accepts them gladly, but the two don’t go home together since Futo’s a popular idol and him going somewhere with any female would be just asking for someone to write about a scandal. …Though apparently all of the other times they’ve been together in public before and after this aren’t cause for concern.

New Years, Futo refuses to go out with the rest of the family because he’s tired and he doesn’t want to be out in public in crowded places. …Though when Ema feels bad about bugging him, he gets nicer and tells her not to worry about it. After that, Futo starts getting angsty about his acting career again. He’s in a role that may let him become a full time actor if he does well, but the thing is that he’s not doing so well. Obviously, he’s stressed and is actually really honest with Ema when she asks what’s wrong (…which may be the best indication that he’s feeling down). Ema doesn’t play the cheerleader here for once though and basically says that this is all because Futo is taking acting seriously where he hasn’t done that before in his career. Until now, he has never really felt responsibility or pressure from his job. …Not that Ema really has a serious job either, but her wisdom here is just what Futo needs to cheer up. (Plus, she told him that she likes the serious side of him. That might have helped comfort him.) Meanwhile, Ema just think bout how she wants to take the waifu approach support him even more in the future.

Valentine’s Day, Ema hands Futo chocolates, only for him to accuse her of trying to make him fat (since being a idol, he receives truckloads from his fans). …Though it’s not like he refuses them… also he asks if she wants to sleep with him, but that’s a joke from him. You’d think that Ema would be used to Futo acting like this by now, but NOPE, she still gets just as flustered. Early March, Futo asks Ema out for a walk since it’s late and there’s hardly anyone out. During this, Ema notes that Futo is less harsh than he used to be towards her. They look at sakura trees and apparently the whole point of this was that Futo wanted to let Ema know that he successfully passed his high school exam (though where he’s going is a surprise, though he does specifically say that it’s most fun when he’s around her). …Oh, and Ema also notes that there’s no way she can just see Futo as a little brother anymore. White Day, it turns out that the great Futo actually stood in line in order to buy Ema some really popular sweets that normally sell out super fast. Ema feels bad about him going to all of the effort (oh, Ema) and Futo threatens to come to her room and eat them for her (or actually, have her feed them to her) if she doesn’t. …This is of course, a joke, and Ema gets flustered. What else is new?

In a plot twist to end all plot twists, it turns out that the high school Futo applied to is actually Ema’s school! What a surprise! His reasoning is that his manager wanted him to enter high school, and he figured that he really enjoys hanging around Ema, so this was killing two birds with one stone. Oh, Ema’s friend Mahoko apparently really likes Futo (as a fan of an idol), so she’s (good-naturedly) jealous of Ema, since Ema gets to walk home with him and such. This makes Ema think that Futo probably decided all of this on a whim. …Though talking to him, he sets her straight in saying that he wouldn’t do all of this just for an “older sister”. During this, he buys Ema ice cream and then proceeds to eat it himself for the indirect kiss. …Ema understands by now that Futo has feelings for her (though it certainly took her a looooooong time).

Futo’s new movie is rather popular, so he doesn’t go to school for a while out of business. However, when she’s in the library, Futo shows up. The two have a conversation where Ema notices that Futo isn’t quite himself and it turns out that despite the fact that his movie did well commercially, it wasn’t quite what the director wanted in terms of Futo’s acting. So yeah, despite doing his best, it still wasn’t good enough. Ema continues with her tough love though and points out that it’s good that Futo is upset because he’s still super serious about the career path. Though she also adds that she wants to see him try again and get closer to his dreams in the future. Futo helps Ema take down a book she can’t reach, which is just a really shoujo way of showing that he’s finally taller than her. He hugs her and says that he doesn’t care that they’re siblings, that he’s an idol, or that they’re currently in the middle of school. He also asks Ema to give him a “reward” for doing his best on the movie …But then he has to go to work.

From then on, he calls Ema by name instead of “onee-san” to show everyone that she’s his.

Ema receives tickets to see Futo’s new movie and because she’s special, she gets the entire theatre to herself. Being Ema, of course she watches the movie in extreme seriousness and pays extra attention to Futo. …And then it turns out that he’s right behind her, since he came in quietly after the movie started to surprise her. Though he decided to let things be when he saw how into the movie Ema was. He also tells Ema not to worry about the press accusing them of scandals, since they’re siblings. …Though it would be scandalous if he told them how in love he was with his sister (not that he’s stupid enough to do that). Ema tells Futo that she loves him too.

Sometime in the future, Ema is waiting in her room to have a date with Futo, but he’s late so she goes to his room to see why he hasn’t come yet. However, when she enters, she finds him asleep. Though being Ema, she can’t be mad for long. Especially because she knows how busy the guy has been lately since his acting career has apparently taken off by this point. Ema turns to leave, but it turns out that Futo has been awake ever since she came into the room and he was just hoping she’d try to kiss him awake or something. As punishment for attempting to leave though, they’re going to have a room date and do “something more tiring”.

Hikaru

After Ema’s existential crisis is around the time that the final brother, Hikaru shows up. Ema meets Kaname talking to a beautiful woman coming home one day and since Kaname is being really familiar with the woman, Ema assume that it’s Kaname’s real girlfriend. They all go to the apartment complex together and Ema is surprised with how familiar Hikaru is acting with everyone. ‘She’ accuses Tsubaki of still having a sister complex and Kaname says that he has one too. …To which, Ema tells Kaname that he shouldn’t say things like that in front of his girlfriend. However, Kaname tells her not to say scary things like that since Hikaru is part of the family. xD …Which Ema didn’t catch on to despite the fact that Tsubaki called him ‘Hika-nii’ like, twice before. …And then it takes Rui walking in and calling him “Hikaru-nii-san” for Ema to catch on that he’s male.

At the beginning of December, Hikaru comes over and starts complaining about how his brothers are all making Ema cook for them. Ema doesn’t mind though (plus Ukyo has been busy and everyone else would probably be more of a hindrance than anything). Then during dinner, Hikaru starts asking Ema a whole bunch of questions about what high school girls are into. He explains that he’s a novelist, and he wants info for writing materials since he doesn’t hang out with highschool girls anymore. …Plus he’s not around Ema as often as the others and knows less about her than everyone else as a result~. However, Kaname, Tsubaki and Wataru all want Ema’s attention suddenly, so Hikaru says he’ll ask again later. Then during Christmas Eve, Ema runs into a Hikaru when he’s not crossdressing. Though of course, being Ema, she doesn’t recognize him until he changes his voice/way of speaking to the one he uses while crossdressing. The two of them go shopping, since there’s a certain store Hikaru wants to go in to (but it would be awkward if he did alone, since he’s not in drag that day) and they come across a Christmas candle lighting event. The two participate and are mistaken for a couple, but Ema can’t help but notice how much bigger Hikaru’s hands are compared to her own. Also, they decide to keep this meeting a secret due to the fact that the other brothers would complain if they found out.

New Years, Hikaru is dressed as a female again, and the family all goes to the shrine together. In this case, Ema and Hikaru get a bunch of free extra food from all of the stalls (as a service for the “sisters” lolol), and they share with the rest of the brothers. …Because according to Hikaru, it’s fun as a woman to make a man feel like her owes her xD. Later, Hikaru decides to hire Ema to talk to him for material for his novels. It’s nothing special (just conversation), and the reason is just that Hikaru doesn’t get to talk to high school girls often for material. Ema insists that he doesn’t pay her though (since they’re siblings~), and they decide to meet on the upcoming Sunday.

So Ema goes over and it’s sexual harassment interview time. It starts out innocently enough with Hikaru asking which of the brothers is Ema’s type and Ema insisting that she only thinks of them as siblings. However, the interview turns into Hikaru flirting in the role of various brothers and seeing Ema’s reactions (she takes it all seriously, only to be surprised when Hikaru laughs at her reactions, of course). Of course, this is all just material gathering for the novels (or is it?) and Ema can’t get angry since Hikaru seems to be enjoying himself. It goes on for a long time, so Ema stays the night. Hikaru tells her to strip. …Because he has a bunch of old clothing that he doesn’t wear anymore, and wants to see if she wants any (ah, the perks of having a crossdressing older brother). Though she can only wear them on dates with him. Nothing else terribly exciting happens (this game isn’t R-18 or anything), but Ema is apparently welcome back any time provided that Hikaru isn’t busy with work.

I’m pretty sure that it’s around this time that Hikaru ditches the female look.

Early February, Ema finally goes to borrow some of Hikaru’s novels from Kaname at night. …He thinks she’s there for other reasons, and is kind of let down that she only wants the books. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this anywhere before, but Hikaru writes noir novels, and his whole cross dressing thing is all due to that genre. Apparently it’s easier to get research for his novels done by dressing and acting as a woman. Anyways, Ema likes his books despite it totally not being the genre she’s used to.

Valentines Day, Ema gives Hikaru chocolate cake, but he acts really cold about it. …Which is, of course, him just wanting to see her reaction over his attitude. In March, Ema goes over to Hikaru’s house only to find it a disaster area because he’ s really close to a deadline. Ema volunteers to go home since she only came there to drop off food and she knows that he’s busy, but he insists that she stays. Ema takes the waifu approach cleans up Hikaru’s room while he writes. White Day, he takes Ema out for dinner. Ema finds the whole thing really enjoyable, since Hikaru is well informed about what women’s taste is.

The next time they meet up, it’s for another interview, which means more of Ema taking Hikaru seriously every single time he flirts with her (though she knows that he takes his material gathering for his novels rather seriously). They also talk about Hikaru’s novels, which Ema praises for his criminal characters being rather sympathetic. Apparently Hikaru is good at writing realistic emotions or something, and he’s happy with Ema noticing since that effect is exactly what he was aiming for. When the interview is done this time, Ema feels kind of sad that she has to leave Hikaru.

So around the end of March, Hikaru has another set up for his novel. Though the scenario that they play out is that Hikaru is “hypothetically” a writer who used a girl as an interview object, but then gradually fell in love with her. When Hikaru confesses in the “scenario” though, Ema feels like the situation is really painful because she’s so used to Hikaru doing these things and really doesn’t think that he has any feelings for her whatsoever. So Ema stops the interview and despite Hikaru asking to stay over or to drive her home, she absolutely refuses and tells him that she wants to be alone. So Ema ignores Hikaru for a couple months to sort out her paaaaaaaaaaaain, even though he asks to talk.

Finally, Ema reads the story Hikaru wrote and it’s a romance story instead of his usual ones about criminals. It’s basically about a reporter who interviews this girl, and then falls in love with her (Ema is of course, moved by Hikaru’s expression of love in the story). And of course, with classic shoujo timing, Hikaru just happens to come for a visit then. So Ema burst into tears right there, and Hikaru says that he wanted to visit, but wanted to finish the novel since he felt that it was the best way to tell Ema his feelings. Ema accepts his feelings of course, and they become a couple.

…Though the family apparently isn’t entirely aware, since the brothers joke that Ema might be the base for Hikaru’s novel. They mostly seem to have already assumed what was going on, but I guess Ema hasn’t officially told them. Ema goes to visit Hikaru and apparently his editor wants him to continue the romance genre (plus he’s tired of dressing in drag to write noir novels now that he has Ema). At the end of this, he asks Ema to move in with him since he doesn’t want any of the other brothers to taker her away (plus, you know, for adult things).

Even later in the year, Hikaru’s book is getting an adaptation, and there’s a party in celebration of that. Ema doesn’t really see Hikaru during it though since he’s busy greeting everybody. Finally, when Ema leaves the main party, Hikaru finds her/kisses her. Then I guess they go to some hotel since Hikaru doesn’t want her going home all dressed up, and he has plans to take that dress off later anyways.

Others

There were a few other scenarios with the brothers who’s routes weren’t featured in the game. I only did 3 and they weren’t exactly romance scenes (because they want you to buy Brilliant Blue for that, obviously), but since I bothered with them, I figured I should write something. Though apparently my note taking skills here decreased drastically (seriously, what the hell does “Wataru, Masaomi, hand, Iori” even mean, past self?) for this, so the only one that’s actually written in half detail is Wataru’s event. I’m so sorry. OTL

For Iori, a few of the brothers and Ema go to a family restaurant for a change. Wataru wants to hold hands with Ema, and this somehow develops into everyone holding hands. Ema gets to hold Iori’s, thus the CG.

In Wataru’s event, he and Subaru play old maid. They’re near the end and Juli is helping Wataru, but of course, Wataru has no idea what Juli is saying, so he picks the opposite card. It turns out to be the right card though (to which Juli goes something like “Er, yeah. That’s what I wanted you to do all along!”), so it’s the final round. Wataru has no poker face whatsoever so Subaru is nice and choses the wrong card so Wataru can win.

Natsume’s event, he spots Ema after school one day and they decide to hang out. So the two go to an arcade (or maybe she was already at one, damn it all, I can’t even remember) and Natsume and her totally kick ass at some shooting game.

Well, my feeling of “so moe I almost died” still applies to this other half of Passion Pink. The character interactions in this game are just so good and the family based scenes in this are just too adorable. Maybe Yusuke’s route could have ended better, but perhaps the clumsiness of his character worked with the clumsiness of the ending. Yeah, I don’t know. I can’t really complain about Futo or Hikaru either. Like I said above, Futo’s constant teasing worked well with Ema’s character. As for Hikaru, his route was surprisingly エロい towards the end. I totally wouldn’t have expected that from the crossdresser route (Futo on the other hand…) . Ema was a pretty good heroine. She had a lot of “perfect waifu” qualities, but she still felt like her own character as opposed to being a self-insert heroine. I mean, she had her own worries and faults. That counts for something. Probably.

I still didn’t experience most of the programming issues that I’ve heard that other people have had. I also had a WAAAAAY easier time playing through this once after I learned to read the guides carefully in the first couple of routes, so these three were pretty stress-free as far as gameplay went.

So I’ll be playing through Brilliant Blue sometime in the future (I mean, I bought it almost a year ago, it would be a waste of space if I didn’t). I’m really excited for Azusa’s route and if they turned Masaomi’s route into something adorable, maybe Wataru’s route can turn me into a shotacon be just as good. Actually, I think a lot of my preferred characters are in that game. Though I kind of want to finish the first DiaLovers, Kin’iro no Corda 3 and the eroge I’m currently playing first before I even touch Brilliant Blue. PRIORITIES.

I should actually spend some time playing a VN (I’ve been working (not really) on Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi). I get too picky about trying to translate every single thing, but it’s been 6-8 months since I really gave it a try, and I know my Japanese is a lot better now than then (it’s fun telling google that your preferred language is Japanese…). I’ve actually been reading a couple untranslated manga and that’s going better (do NOT ask which ones).

Sounds like the game is better than the anime was, especially with regards to Futo. Yusuke seems to be a bit less interesting, maybe cause he’s such a big doof. It also seems like the whole setup gets a bit better when you get away from Azusa and Tsubaki (I have been realizing how much I dislike those two in particular).

Man, Highway. As soon as you say “don’t ask”, I immediately assume H doujins or something. xD But yeah, VNs are fun. This is what I do instead of writing my episodics on time, anyways. Maybe you can join anaaga and I for writing posts!

Yes. Holy crap I can not express how much better this was from the anime in every single way. Tch, say what you want about Tsubaki, but (I assume) Azusa isn’t as bad as he was in the anime. xD

It was shorter than you’d think (minus me not paying attention to guides and replaying routes over and over again), but my text wall doesn’t really express that. Yes~ this was definitely on the “cute” side of the otoge spectrum.

Did Mahou Tsukai ever get that translation? Then you’ll have even more to do. xD